Tigo Tanzania announced today that it has created a Tigo Business unit to develop a series of products using high-speed fibre connections to support the needs of the country’s large corporate organisations as well as its small and medium-sized enterprises.

The newly-established team plans to launch these new services from the third quarter of 2014 by deploying Tigo’s existing fibre network and expanding it. Local and international businesses will be able to benefit from Tigo’s own extensive fibre infrastructure, which supports its mobile network, and on which there is considerable capacity to support the high-speed connectivity now required by many Tanzanian companies.

Tigo is part of the international telecommunications and media company Millicom, many of whose other operations offer such business-to-business services.

The company is also exploring the potential for deploying cable services to consumers in relevant urban areas and expects a pilot service to be underway later in 2014.

In a statement from incoming Cell C chairman, Mohammed Hariri, he announced the return of Alan Knott-Craig to Cell C. Knott-Craig was said to have made a remarkable recovery since he suffered a stroke in November 2013 and has officially been back at the company since May 5, 2014.

He returned to the company in the capacity of executive board member of Cell C and in his new role he will consult and advise on matters not only relating to Cell C but also concerning the Oger Telecom Group.

Knott-Craig joined Cell C on April 1, 2012.

Hariri also announced that Jose Dos Santos has now been confirmed CEO of Cell C, having been acting CEO over the last five months following Knott-Craig’s absence.

Telenor has posted a very slight rise in its first quarter profits as the company’s revenues also rose by a modest amount.

The company said that revenues for the quarter came in slightly higher in at NOK26.5 billion (US$4.48 billion), while profits were NOK 3.67 billion.

"We added six million new mobile subscribers in the first quarter of 2014, the company’s best customer surge in two years. This growth was mainly driven by India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The underlying mobile service revenue growth improved to five per cent in the quarter,” said Jon Fredrik Baksaas, president and CEO of Telenor Group.

The company is maintaining its financial outlook for the year, excluding Myanmar, of low single-digit organic revenue growth, a stable EBITDA margin and a capex to sales ratio of around 16 per cent.

Telecom Egypt has agreed to a government demand to pay EGP2.5 billion (USD355 million) for an MVNO licence and will enter into negotiations with the other mobile networks to secure the necessary wholesale access.

The company said in a statement that its "strong financial performance and positive cash position would allow it to pay the total telecom licence (TTL) fees without any external sources of finance.

It has long been expected that the wholesale agreement will be with Vodafone, as Telecom Egypt owns a 45 per cent stake in the local mobile network operator.

That stake may have to be sold though, if, as expected, Telecom Egypt bids to become a full mobile network operator when the government auctions 4G spectrum in 2016.

Zain Group has confirmed that it has increased its stake in its operation in Bahrain to 63 per cent, having acquired an additional 6.25 per cent shareholding from minority shareholders that include Vodafone Group, for a total consideration of U$12.5 million. This values Zain Bahrain at US$200 million.

Zain Bahrain is currently undoing a process to list 15 per cent of its shareholding on the Bahrain Bourse and this latest transaction will permit Zain Group to retain majority control of the Bahrain unit upon completion of the stock market listing.